About Coach Damon

And The Story of Lax Goalie Rat

Lax Goalie Rat is a site created and run by me, Coach Damon Wilson, to teach you proven strategies for improving your lacrosse goalie game. But why dedicate so much time to helping lax goalies?

Lacrosse is my passion. The game has given me so much and this site is my way of giving back. After learning to play goalie from scratch, I wanted to create a resource where I could share everything I learned with other goalies.

Who is Coach Damon?

And how does he know how to Coach Goalies?

I'm a lacrosse goalie coach in my mid-thirties. I learned to play goalie from scratch and now I'm sharing everything and even learning lots of new things along the way.

I started playing goalie as a freshman at Cal Berkeley. I was fortunate enough to have some great head coaches and goalie coaches and All-American teammates to learn from as I progressed through my goalie career.

After being completely scared of the ball my 1st day in goal, I went on to start by my Junior year and then post a 63% save percentage my Senior year. I was also elected Captain of the team and named 2nd team All-American.

I wasn’t the greatest goalie when I played in college but I do consider myself to be an outstanding teacher and motivator of lacrosse goalies. I was blessed with the gift of teaching, motivation, and patience and when I combined that with my passion for lacrosse and helping others, the mix was magical.

I actually think my coaching benefits from the fact that I didn't grow up being a lacrosse goalie. In Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, they talk about something called The Curse of Knowledge. This is the “curse” people have that makes it hard for them to teach something they know to a person who knows nothing about it. It can be tough to gauge and hard to assume how much your student already knows. Since there were some areas of goalie there were new to me, as I do the research, it was easier to translate into something young goalies can understand.

How Lax Goalie Rat began

A LITTLE ORIGIN STORY ABOUT A BIG DREAM

After finishing my collegiate career, I started coaching. For years I coached different goalies one on one, analyzing their technique and building them into mental warriors in the crease. This allowed me to see the mistakes that young lacrosse goalies frequently make.

With all the lacrosse goalie knowledge I was accumulating I wanted a method to share it with more people. With young goalies, coaches, and their parents who may not have access to lacrosse goalie coaching. That’s where the idea for Lax Goalie Rat came about.

But I had never written anything before in my life apart from some essays while studying at Cal. Albeit I was an engineer so even those opportunities where few and far between. Still every time I was at the gym, my brain would not stop thinking about different things I wanted to share related to playing to lacrosse goalie. So in September of 2015 I launched LaxGoalieRat.com and started writing. I wrote everyday. I wrote when I probably should have been working on other things. But like I said, lacrosse is my passion and I enjoyed putting together detailed and in-depth posts to help lacrosse goalies learn a particular element of this position.

The response I’ve gotten from the blog has been amazing. Young goalies from all over have reached out thanking me for sharing the information that’s so lacking in our lacrosse goalie community. Even if the answer to your goalie question exists somewhere out there many said it was nice to know that LaxGoalieRat would always have everything they were looking for.

This is where Lax Goalie Rat fits in and why I call myself your online lacrosse Goalie Coach.

I want you to use what I've learned in my journey to help you reach your own goals in lacrosse. This is why I work so hard to publish good material, so you can become dominate in the goal.

Why I do What I do

HINT: IT's all about you goalies

My motivation for this site is helping lacrosse goalies and their parents. You'll hear and see me mention that throughout everything I do.

With the explosion of lacrosse's popularity there exists a large void in high quality lacrosse coaches, especially lacrosse goalie coaches. Many parents have children who are getting into playing goalie and have no idea what this sport is all about. This site is to help fill that void.

Here are some other interesting tidbits about Coach Damon:

I'm MARRIED!

Her name is Paola and she's originally from Argentina. We got married in Argentina in February and then in the USA in July in Carmel Valley.

Huge SF GIANTS FAN

I'm a big fan of all the Bay Area sports teams - 49ers, Warriors, and especially the SF Giants!